Boonshoft Museum of Discovery invites visitors to start new year healthy — MedCity Evening Read, Jan. 1, 2010

News and notes from the holiday in MedCity, Ohio:

New Year’s Day visitors to Dayton’s Boonshoft Museum of Discovery were invited by representatives of Get Up! Montgomery County to make the “521AN” Pledge to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, reduce “screen time” to less than two hours, get at least one hour of active play each day, and to drink almost no sugary beverages, according to the Dayton Daily News.

An Ohio appeals court has ruled that the state can use about $230 million set aside for tobacco prevention for other purposes, such as an expansion of health care for children and optional Medicaid services, the Columbus Dispatch reported. Prior to a 2008 legal challenge, the tobacco settlement money had been used, in part, by Ohio Third Frontier to fund biomedical research and commercialization grants.

Rami Aqeilan, a researcher at Ohio State University, has been awarded $375,000 over three years by Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer to study bone cancer in children, according to Business First of Columbus.

Portage County Community Health Center in Kent, a sliding-scale health-care center in Portage County, expects to add to its 4,000 patients in 2009 starting next week when the center’s medical practice adds evening hours and a new dental practice opens for six days a week, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.